


Pick Up (Double Entendre Intended)

by infiniteeight



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, Ficlet, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, Not SHIELD Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 17:18:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3075386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infiniteeight/pseuds/infiniteeight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's pouring rain and Phil takes pity on a stranded bus user.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pick Up (Double Entendre Intended)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a random ficlet inspired by one too many nights stranded at the bus stop myself while it poured rain and the bus schedule ground on and on without a single bus actually showing up.

Phil pulled up to the exit from the gym's underground parking lot and looked both ways, a little more slowly and carefully than usual because it was pouring down rain. Just as he was about to ease off the brake and pull out, movement caught the corner of his eye and he turned to look again.

There was someone waiting at the bus stop just to the right of the parking exit. By the breadth of the shoulders Phil was sure it was a man, and his schedule at the gym was regular enough that Phil was pretty sure it was the guy with the dark blond hair and killer arms that Phil often glimpsed coming out of the neighboring archery range just as he was leaving the gym. The guy always caught the bus at this stop.

Except there was construction further up the route; Phil worked up there, and some of his colleagues had spent the last week bitching to him about being left out in the rain, waiting, for upwards of an hour some nights. He'd been thinking about offering them a ride, but he was afraid if he started, they'd ask or just expect him to keep offering. As much as he wanted to be helpful, Phil didn't want to end up bound to someone else's schedule.

But this guy had probably been dealing with the same thing, and he didn't even have an umbrella, and he might think Phil was a creep and tell him no, but he wasn't going to expect the favor every day. So Phil pulled out of the parking and stopped in front of the guy, then leaned across the passenger seat and thumbed the button to lower the window. "You want a ride?" he called over the sound of the rain. The guy hesitated, so Phil added, "There's construction on the route, you could be here awhile."

The guy swore and glanced in the direction the bus ought to have been coming, then back at Phil. "Yeah, sure," he called back.

Phil flipped the lock and the guy pulled the door open and slid into the passenger seat. "Sorry," he said as he pulled the door shut and raised the window. "I'm getting the seat wet." He was dripping, his jeans soaked and water running freely off his rain jacket.

"It's fine, I was expecting that," Phil said, tossing the guy a reassuring smile before pulling back out onto the road. "Where are you headed? I follow the bus route almost all the way home, hopefully I can get you close."

The guy gave an address that was only a few blocks from Phil's place, so said he'd take him right to his door. "As long as that isn't creepy," Phil said, glancing at him.

He laughed and wow, he had a great smile. "If I thought you were creepy, I'd have given a street corner, not an address. I'm Clint, by the way."

"Phil."

"You pick up a lot of folks at bus stops, Phil?" Clint asked, but he was smiling, just teasing.

Phil answered solemnly. "This is my first time. Be gentle."

Clint laughed again and Phil chuckled with him because people didn't always find his jokes funny and, God, it was nice when they did. "Gentle isn't usual in my repetoire," Clint's smile took on a mischievous tilt, "but I don't get many complaints."

Was Clint... flirting? Phil glanced at him, but he couldn't tell. Maybe he was just keeping the banter going. "Not interested in broadening your horizons?" Phil asked, hoping he'd hit an appropriately teasing note.

Clint snorted at that one. "My horizons are plenty broad." Fuck. Of course he'd missed the mark, Phil was terrible at flirting. He shot Clint an inquiring look rather than risk words again. "I lived with a circus as a kid," Clint explained. "Had a whole lotta experiences most kids don't. Great for learning how to think on your feet, not so great for learning how to do the steady job and mortgage thing when you're ready to settle down."

The circus? Maybe Clint was spinning a tale for him, but given his tone, Phil didn't think so. He also didn't think Clint wanted to be grilled about it, so instead Phil said, "That was one thing I didn't have trouble learning. My parents are both real estate agents. I had a mortgage before I finished college; they refused to let me rent a place. I joined the army just to make sure I got out and saw _some_ of the world before I settled down."

"Army, huh?" Phil glanced at Clint, because sometimes people didn't react to that so well. But Clint just quirked his eyebrows when he caught Phil looking. "Does that mean you're a man with broad horizons, yourself?"

Phil felt the tips of his ears go hot. It was dark; Clint probably couldn't see. "I like to think so."

"I'm glad," Clint said, and Phil wondered if maybe the flirting wasn't a lost cause after all. "A man with a narrower attitude might have left me dripping and frustrated."

Glancing at Clint, Phil was momentarily captured by blue-green eyes slightly veiled by Clint's eyelashes. Forcing his eyes back to the road, Phil was sure his cheeks must be pink now, too. He licked his lips. "Not in my nature," he said, almost casually. "Anyone I pick up is going to be happy with the ride I give them."

"Yeah, I buy that," Clint murmured. "You get what's important. What needs paying attention to."

"Do you need paying attention to, then?" Phil asked, almost surprised at the archness in his tone.

Clint laughed, soft and almost rueful. "I don't know. Might be nice to find out, though."

How could someone like Clint not know how it felt to be showered with attention? Phil had spoken with him for all of ten minutes and he could tell that Clint had a quick mind and a unique outlook, in addtion to being gorgeous. But before Phil could so much as imply they might find out together, Clint looked out the window and said, "Next block is mine." 

It was silly, but Phil couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed as he slowed to a stop out front of Clint's building. As Clint reached for the door, Phil tried to think of somehing to say to stretch out the moment, but he drew a blank, and Clint stepped out of the car. He turned, then paused and leaned down, holding the door open instead of swinging it shut. "Hey," he said. "Maybe this makes me the creepy one, but, uh, would you like to go for coffee sometime? "

Phil grinned. "I'd love to."

~!~


End file.
